Happy October! I cannot believe that this year is moving so quickly. In about 4 months I will be 19. In less then a year, I will be in Africa. The summer seemed to inch by. But now my schedule is packed tight with friends squeezed into every crevice of availability I can manage. It is wonderful to be so deliciously involved in life. I've been sampling every taste and opportunity I run across and for the most part I enjoy what I find. I'm in love with life again. I feel energized like I haven't felt in years. It feels good to really smile. I have found everything I needed inside myself.

I did very well on my speech yesterday. I'm very excited about the fact that public speaking no longer makes me physically sick. I think this is in part because I spent the summer talking to people at the zoo, (best decision I ever made was to take that job by the way...). But it is also in part because I adore my speech teacher, Marc Rittennour. He is simply a great teacher. He shines with such personality and self confidence and he genuinely cares about what we have to say. He treats us as equals, not simply as students. And his wonderful charisma and teaching style has simply inspired me to do the best I possibly can. I want to impress him more than I can remember wanting to impress a teacher in a long time. His class is my favorite class, he brings out the personality in all my fellow students too and we just have such a blast that the time in there veritably flies by! He wants me to compete at a tournament and I really think that I'm going to! =) I love college...

Intellectual huggles!